


The Best Sleep in Years

by dolphinitley



Category: Red Dead Redemption
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 10:13:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17201594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dolphinitley/pseuds/dolphinitley
Summary: Y/N awakes at Clemens Point by Arthur's side the morning after he escaped the O'Driscolls.





	The Best Sleep in Years

“What are you doin’ on the ground, girl?”  
You awoke with a smile to Arthur’s gravelly voice. You lifted your right hand that had been resting on his hip while you slept. He was weak but in a much better state than when he collapsed from his horse at camp last night after escaping the O’Driscolls.  
“Takin’ care of your sorry ass,” you replied jokingly. The late morning sun felt nice on your face. You rose and began peeling off the bandage on his bullet wound so you could put on a fresh one. “You cauterize this wound yourself, Mr. Morgan?”  
“Yes ma’am. With a file and a candle.”  
“Oh, I saw the wax.”  
“Thank you for cleanin’ up the wound.” Arthur looked at you, waiting to catch your eyes.  
“You’re welcome,” you said softly with a concerned look. You finished up with his bandage. His gaze was fixed on your face and hands the entire time. He had always respected your medical skills, but watching you care for him now made his heart warm. He was also impressed because removing pieces of a bullet from a cauterized wound was the most complicated procedure you had done with the gang thus far.  
“Why you lookin’ so damn sad, girl? I ain’t dyin’ am I?”  
“No.” You lightened up a bit. “No, you’re not dying just yet Arthur Morgan. You do got a couple broken ribs, though.” You showed him the bandages around his ribcage. “Gonna have to take it easy for a few weeks. Let people help you get around.”  
He grunted in response. “Well, who am I to disobey the doctor’s orders?” he replied with a wink, which earned a smile from you. It was a relief to joke with him again after his absence. Everything was okay for a moment, but then your stare drifted to the sparkling lake.  
“I’m gonna kill Micah.”  
“It’s gonna be alright.” Arthur was gently stroking a loose strand of your hair in his fingertips. He’d never done that before, but it was soothing to you.  
You heard footsteps approaching.  
“Y/N? I can sit with him for a while if you wanna take a break,” Karen offered.  
You looked to Arthur and he nodded back to you. You accepted Karen’s offer and headed over to the horses. You checked on your horse and had a healing hug with her. Then you stroked Arthur’s horse, gave her a sugar cube, and thanked her for bringing him back safe.  
In the following weeks that Arthur took to heal, you were by his side. You felt pleasure in doing extra chores around camp that he was unable to do. You were constantly thinking of a way to leave and start a different life. Arthur’s injuries weren’t life threatening, but when he was a hostage he was in grave danger and could have easily been killed. The incident got into your head. This man was extremely important to you. You hadn’t felt like this for any man even before you started living on the run. You wanted Arthur to run away with you but you knew how fiercely loyal he was to Dutch and Hosea. So, you decided to stay for now and just keep going.  
You were playing with Jack on the morning that Arthur was officially healed. Arthur walked toward you and Jack and was smiling. He’d let you cut his hair while he was healing, but he wanted to grow his beard out. There was something a bit different about him now. The time he spent resting allowed him to do a lot of reflecting. He was wiser now, and stronger. He finally looked put together again. He was wearing a red shirt with the sleeves rolled up and light wash jeans. He looked very handsome to you. You loved to watch him play with Jack. You caught yourself imagining what a good father he would be, but then snapped out of your pointless daydream.  
“I’m gonna head into town later,” Arthur told you. “Help Dutch with some things.”  
You were the slightest bit annoyed at his show of loyalty to Dutch but knew you had no real reason or right to be angry. Arthur was going about his normal business that he’d always done before he’d gotten captured. It didn’t bother you before. The time you had spent together during his healing was so intimate and delicate. It affected you and you wondered how much it had affected him. Maybe you just needed time to get back into the normal routine of things.  
Unfortunately, that couldn’t happen. Only a few days after Arthur’s full recovery, the law had found your camp. They tried to make a deal with Dutch and he refused. They left, promising to be back with 50 men. At that, Arthur and Charles went out to find a new camp location. You helped everyone quickly pack up over the next day and get ready for the move. Arthur and Charles returned, saying they’d cleared a huge abandoned house. You couldn’t believe it had been years since you called a house your home. Sure, the area was swampy and humid, but at least it was warm and the land was beautiful and secluded. The camp was happier for a while, but of course that never lasts. You thought you’d escaped the problems in Rhodes, but the Braithwaites had other ideas. They kidnapped Jack in the night and handed him over to a rich and dangerous man in Saint Denis. Dutch, Arthur, and John set out to find him. You tried to comfort Abigail as best as you could, but there was no consoling a mother whose child was missing. You loved Jack, too. He was a great kid and your friend. If those idiot Braithwaites could steal Jack in the middle of the night without anyone knowing, this camp was obviously much more vulnerable than you thought. You kept your gun and axe on you at all times now. You were very alert and could feel it affecting your stress level and emotions.  
The men finally returned with Jack, safe and sound. Everyone in the camp could breathe again and you spent that night drinking and singing by the fire. At first you had a spot by yourself by the fire, smiling at the happy gang. Arthur came up behind you and nudged your shoulder blade with a beer. You looked up and smiled at each other. He sat down next to you and you clinked bottles.  
“Nice job getting Jack back. I can’t put into words how relieved everyone is that he’s home and safe,” you said.  
“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if we hadn’t gotten him back,” replied Arthur. “I hate to say it, but this whole thing brought that family a lot closer.”  
You looked at Arthur intently. He met your gaze and quickly ran his tongue over his bottom lip. You gripped his bicep and shook him a bit with a smile. He smiled back and took a swig of his beer.  
The next day you decided that if you were going to ever have a chance of leaving, you’d have to start saving up more of your own money. You were going out alone a lot more often and Arthur noticed, but didn’t question you.  
Arthur thought of you even more than you thought of him. He thought of how smart, gentle, and beautiful you were. He thought of how careless it was of him to develop feelings like this and become vulnerable. This was a dangerous life and he knew he could lose anyone at any moment. He couldn’t stop himself from getting closer to you. You were his best friend. Your presence was one of the few things that elicited genuine smiles from him. When you were resting or otherwise busy, he’d spend time with your horse, talking to her and brushing her. When you caught him doing it once, you smiled.  
In the following months you had gathered quite a lot of money for yourself from hunting and scavenging. You hid it in a lock box inside a hole in a tree by the house. You were just putting it away one evening when you heard a scream. You ran to the front of the house to see Kieran’s body and decapitated head propped on a horse that was sent into camp. Your hand went to your gun. Then O’Driscolls began emerging from hiding spots, one after another. You took cover behind a shed and saw Sadie running toward you with her gun out. You and Sadie took out O’Driscolls one a time until you saw Arthur sprinting through the cross fire to retrieve you and Sadie.  
“What are you doin’ out here?!”  
“Takin’ care of these dumbass O’Driscolls!” replied Sadie.  
You all sprinted inside and finished off the attackers. You cleared the area all around the camp and made sure everyone was accounted for. Nobody was hurt, but you were all a bit shaken. The attack strengthened your doubts about Dutch and your thoughts about leaving.  
That night you lied awake even after everyone had fallen into restless sleep. You stared into the crackling fire in the fire place and ran through the events of the past few months. You tried to convince yourself that things would work out here. You couldn’t help but think that there must be a better life somewhere. A life where you weren’t in a constant feud with another gang. A life where you weren’t always checking that nobody was following you home or trying to scam you.  
You lifted your blanket off yourself and put on a cardigan over your knee length nightgown. You padded to the staircase and quietly climbed up to the second floor. Your felt your heart beating harder, a lump in your throat, and butterflies in your stomach. As carefully as you could, you opened Arthur’s door and stepped inside his room, but the floorboard creaked. Arthur turned on his side and saw that it was you in his room.  
“Y/N? What’s wrong?” He was visibly concerned.  
“Nothin’.” You shook your head and tried to give him a comforting look. You took a breath and focused on what you needed tonight. At this point, in this world, nothing mattered but for you to be held by Arthur Morgan. You walked over to Arthur’s bed and got under the covers as if it were natural. You turned on your side, away from Arthur, and grabbed his arm to wrap around your waist. He was still and puzzled for a moment, but then relaxed into the embrace. He brought his chest to your back, his knees to the back of your knees, interlaced his fingers with yours, and rested his lips on the back of your head. There was so much warmth shared between the both of you. With his lips gracing your head, Arthur whispered, “You sure you’re alright?”  
At this question, you thought of how wonderfully ‘alright’ you were in this moment. The satisfaction of sharing such genuine affection caused you to tear up. You nodded in response to him. When he lowered his nose to the crook of your neck, you shivered at the tickling sensation of his scratchy beard on your shoulder. Your squirming caused you to push into his body more and he held you tighter and began tickling your sides. Your shared laughter was so childlike and joyful. You turned to face him and he allowed you to grab hold of both of his wrists, finally stopping the tickling. You released his wrists and he cupped your face and kissed your forehead. You wrapped your arms around each other and exhaled in the pleasure of feeling affection. You talked for a while, and then had the best sleep either of you had in years.


End file.
